Content for teachers and students about robotics in our world. Is robotics the Perfect Platform for 21st Century Learning? Read on!.. Would you like your student robotics activities presented here? Leave a comment or email me. And check out Robotics for Teachers PODCAST @ http://www.roboticsforteachers.com/

Monday, August 29, 2016

"When Adam was building practical props and effects for films, he worked
on stunt Weebo robots for the Robin Williams comedy Flubber. Years
later, prop maker Ed Zarick visits the cave with his own mechanized
Weebo, an impressive feat of replica prop building!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0oDYvbnt6M

Sunday, August 28, 2016

Very nice short story (fiction)... 'Fiction by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver | Illustrations by Scott Garrett'

Ever since I can remember, I have wanted a pet robot.

“Robot,” I’d say. “Can you brush my teeth for me?”

“Robot,” I’d say. “I lost my sock. Please find it.”

And he would. At least, in my imagination.

So you can imagine what I did when our principal, Mr. Love, came into
our classroom to announce that my school was having a “Build Your Own
Robot” contest the next day. To be truthful, he had announced it the
week before, and the week before that too. Stuff like that always slips
my mind, and I mean always. This time, the announcement sunk
into my ears and stayed there. I stuck my hand up in the air, waved it
around like a flag on the Fourth of July and said, “I’m in! Please pick
me!!!”

He did. The problem was that I had only one day to build a robot and had no idea how to do it. I mean, no idea.

Luckily, I have two good friends, named Frankie Townsend and Ashley
Wong, who are full of ideas. Unlike me, they are really good students
and they know how to get things done on time. I specialize in getting
nothing done, and getting that done late.

It's a self-balancing scooter that can also help you out at home.

What if you could have a personal robot helper that transforms into a self-balancing scooter? That's the appeal of the Segway Robot, an adorable device which first debuted during CES.
We were able to take a close look at it this week during Intel's
Developer Forum in San Francisco, and while it's clearly a prototype (it
doesn't even have an official name yet), it still has plenty of
potential. Above, check out our interview with Sarah Zhang, senior
director of robotics business operations at Ninebot and Segway, who
dives into what makes this little bot so special.

Using an Intel RealSense camera embedded above its "face," the
Segway Robot is able to detect depth and traverse environments without
bumping into things. At the moment, its capabilities are limited to just
following people around on command, but it's not hard to see how it
could be used for teleconferencing or home security. Imagine a connected
helper like Amazon's Echo that can actually follow you around your
house, for example.

At IDF this week, Segway announced that it's
opening up SDKs for the robot, so that developers will actually be able
to make it useful. That includes a robot SDK, giving devs access to
things like vision, speech, movement and interaction, and a mobility
SDK, which lets them control the bot remotely.
The Segway Robot is built on the frame of the Ninebot Mini,
so it's already a capable self-balancing scooter. The company's
engineers were able to hop on and zoom about the show floor with ease.
Riding the bot didn't go so well for me, unfortunately, but that was
mostly due to my inexperience with self-balancing devices.

While
there's plenty of work to be done on the Segway Robot, it's still one of
the most appealing personal bot concepts we've seen. In comparison, the
ASUS Zenbo seems like a silly toy, and Anki's Cozmo,
while cute, won't help much when you're away from home. Segway plans to
ship developer editions of the robot later this year, and a consumer
version will hit sometime in 2017.

What if you could have a personal robot helper that transforms into a self-balancing scooter? That's the appeal of the Segway Robot, an adorable device which first debuted during CES.
We were able to take a close look at it this week during Intel's
Developer Forum in San Francisco, and while it's clearly a prototype (it
doesn't even have an official name yet), it still has plenty of
potential. Above, check out our interview with Sarah Zhang, senior
director of robotics business operations at Ninebot and Segway, who
dives into what makes this little bot so special.

Using an Intel RealSense camera embedded above its "face," the
Segway Robot is able to detect depth and traverse environments without
bumping into things. At the moment, its capabilities are limited to just
following people around on command, but it's not hard to see how it
could be used for teleconferencing or home security. Imagine a connected
helper like Amazon's Echo that can actually follow you around your
house, for example.

At IDF this week, Segway announced that it's
opening up SDKs for the robot, so that developers will actually be able
to make it useful. That includes a robot SDK, giving devs access to
things like vision, speech, movement and interaction, and a mobility
SDK, which lets them control the bot remotely.
The Segway Robot is built on the frame of the Ninebot Mini,
so it's already a capable self-balancing scooter. The company's
engineers were able to hop on and zoom about the show floor with ease.
Riding the bot didn't go so well for me, unfortunately, but that was
mostly due to my inexperience with self-balancing devices.

While
there's plenty of work to be done on the Segway Robot, it's still one of
the most appealing personal bot concepts we've seen. In comparison, the
ASUS Zenbo seems like a silly toy, and Anki's Cozmo,
while cute, won't help much when you're away from home. Segway plans to
ship developer editions of the robot later this year, and a consumer
version will hit sometime in 2017.

We are such an anxiety-ridden society that we worry about
problems that haven't happened, and, almost certainly, won't. Robots are
an apt example. Even McKinsey and Co., the high-powered management
consulting firm, professes to be concerned. We imagine hordes of robots
destroying jobs, leaving millions of middle-class families without work
and income. Relax. Unless we adopt self-destructive policies, this is
one doomsday we'll avoid.

One thing that the U.S. economy excels
at is creating jobs. You might doubt this listening to Donald Trump and
Hillary Clinton, who promise personally to create millions of
high-paying jobs. This is misleading. The overwhelming share of jobs are
created by the private market, not government or politicians.

ADVERTISING

Yes, there are recessions. Two of them in the post-World War II era
were quite severe (those of 1981-82 and 2007-09). We had scary levels
of unemployment. But eventually the job creation machine reasserts
itself. In 2015, employment totaled 149 million, up from 99 million in
1980 and 137 million in 2000.
What about the robots? In truth,
they are not a new problem. There have always been new technologies and
products that eliminate entire industries and occupations. But lost jobs
and destroyed industries give way, over time, to new industries and
jobs. Cars replaced buggies; smartphones are replacing landlines..."

Friday, August 5, 2016

The familiar garbage in/garbage out axiom has long been a
mantra of computer programmers, and nowhere is the cause-and-effect
principle more apparent than when working with robots. Faced with the
three-dimensional movements (and sometimes audio vocalizations) of
robots, students across the grade spectrum can see the direct results
of their input.

With the hope of introducing robotics in younger age groups, the Parkland School District
in Allentown, PA, aimed to spread its considerable secondary grade
success to the primary grades. This year at the district's Fogelsville Elementary School in Breinigsville, PA, media specialist Samantha A. Edwards piloted a maker space largely devoted to robotics.

Starting with Dash and Dot
robots, Edwards helped K-5 students learn the basics of computer
programming/coding. "Now we can integrate those robots into any
curricular piece," she said, "and that's powerful."

The added "integration" dimension has educators counting the
possibilities. Robotics and storytelling? Edwards is doing it. Using
Lego WeDo classroom sets, she created a publishing section in her maker space dedicated to "digital storytelling."

"Students made an alligator [robot]," explained Edwards. "Then they
made a story board, and from that point we used another Lego product —
the story visualizer software — and they created a story, scene by
scene. Then we hook it up to the computer and program the robot
[alligator] to chomp down on something. They use coding here, and they
put it into the story visualizer software and create a digital story …
With this, students have that motivation to be able to share. They
don't even recognize they are giving a speech."
The trial-and-error ethos is infectious, and Edwards has seen it
even in young students. During one after-school session, students
worked for hours to perfect a robotics movement sequence.

"I said, 'Guys this is it. Parents want you home,'" Edwards said
with a laugh. "They did some fixes. They know the word 'debugging' and
they know it's OK to make mistakes. They fixed it and they were
successful. Parents loved the experience. One parent said, 'My daughter
didn't believe at the beginning that she could code.' This experience
has given her the confidence to be successful and do more, and now she
is trying to build her own robot in the fourth grade."

Edwards' district has recognized the value in the expanded robotics
program. Additional funding through the Parkland Education Foundation
will provide robotics maker spaces in every elementary school in the
Parkland district next year.

The additional investment may make coding/programming second nature
by the time high school rolls around. "People can't believe I have
kindergarteners who can tell you what algorithms are and what debugging
means," said Edwards. "With Ozobots,
for example, you can take markers and teach students coding and
robotics. I had kindergarteners use the markers to draw a triangle, and
then they took the robot and programed it to travel around the shape
of a triangle."

Dip Your Robotic Toe
Administrators in rural districts who are looking to boost robotics
throughout their schools need not despair. Stephanie Miller,
superintendent and principal of Congress Elementary School District No. 17
in Congress, AZ, knows what it's like to get started, and she has had
success so far. "You just need to dip your toe in," she said. "Begin
with the fundamentals."

Click on book cover for information

Getting Started with LEGO Robotics. Anyone who
works with kids can do LEGO Robotics, a rich and highly motivating
platform for important STEM Learning! (surprisingly affordable, too)
This books explains it all!

Click on book cover for information

Getting Started with LEGO Robotics. Anyone who works with kids can do LEGO Robotics, a rich and highly motivating platform for important STEM Learning! (surprisingly affordable, too) This books explains it all!